


Talk To Me

by MaddieandChimney



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: F/M, tw: anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:27:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25259938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieandChimney/pseuds/MaddieandChimney
Summary: Maddie finds Chimney's anxiety medication and questions him about why he never told her.
Relationships: Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han
Kudos: 15
Collections: Madney One-Shots





	Talk To Me

Maddie knows she has to bring it up with him, it’s been niggling in the back of her mind in the two days since she found the medication in the first place. She just doesn’t understand why he hasn’t told her, it’s not as though she doesn’t know he suffers with anxiety. She just doesn’t know when he sought help for said anxiety and why he got help without telling her.

“I found your pills.” She blurts out, too caught up in her own head to actually realise he’s mid-sentence, telling her about his day. It wasn’t how she rehearsed bringing it up, it definitely wasn’t the gentle way she had wanted to bring it up – she had thought about, way too much. About sitting him down, holding his hand, telling him that he could tell her everything.

When he immediately goes quiet, and his face pales, she feels her heart thumping against her chest, moving to grab his hand over the dining table. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to lead with that. I just… I found them a few days ago and I was just… I’ve been thinking about it since. I’m so happy you got help, I just… are they helping? Do you feel better? Did… is it new? Is that why you didn’t tell me?”

Even she can sense she’s overwhelming him with questions, watching as his entire body tenses and his breath hitches. He’s biting down on his lip in an attempt to stop the tears from falling and she hates the way he’s looking at her right then. When he doesn’t say anything, she carries on, needing to fill the silence with something… anything. “You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to. I’m sure you have your reasons but… we’re having a baby together and… I-I thought maybe…”

Maddie knows she’s messed up and said the wrong thing when his hand tears from hers, and he looks as though he wants to run as far away from her as he can. Only, he doesn’t move, he seems completely frozen in the spot, his chest heaving, fingers curling around the edge of the table until his knuckles turn white. He’s still not said a word, eyes closing tightly.

She doesn’t move from her own position, not sure if he even wants her to touch him right then and mostly, she’s afraid that if she moves, if she touches him… he’ll run. She tries to remember the last time he locked himself in the bathroom, if that was the moment he decided to get help. It hasn’t happened in so long, at least since her first trimester. “W-was it… can you say something? Anything?”

Nothing.

“Okay, how about… um, how about I leave you alone for five minutes because baby is pressing on my bladder right now and hopefully you’ll still be here when I get back? I really hope you are… and you don’t have to answer any of my questions. You don’t have to even talk about the medication, you just need to talk, okay? Five minutes…”

Maddie forces a tight smile on her face, slowly standing up as a hand rests on her large bump, doing her best to hold back her own tears right then. “I know I don’t say this enough… I know you know why I don’t… but I love you. And I’m going to give you those five minutes…” Both of them can tell she doesn’t want to leave, but she does anyway.

Chimney waits until the bathroom door is closed, hands dropping from the edge of the table as he tries to focus on taking a deep breath, eyes moving towards the clock on the other side of the room. Five minutes to compose himself, five minutes to stay right where he was and resist any urge he had then to run because she loves him and he can’t let her down.

He counts the seconds in his head, not able to stop the small smile on his face when he hears the door opening barely two-hundred-and-ninety seconds after he started counting. When he sees the relief on her face the moment her eyes settle on him, on the fact he’s still there, he reaches out a hand for her, glad when she practically runs (waddles, a little) to him to take his hand, easily sliding onto his lap. “You’re still here.”

“I’m still here and I love you too.”


End file.
